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South Florida Crime

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – A police report details how a high-ranking Hialeah official managed to hide a glass pipe from police by inserting it in his rectum just before he was arrested last December.

Carlos López, 45, who at the time was the city’s purchasing director, was arrested on in Fort Lauderdale for using methamphetamine while driving through the city’s downtown area reported CBS4 news partner, The Miami Herald.

“López appeared visually shaken and seating. Lopez’s face was flushed from an apparent rise in body temperature and pupils were dilated,” said the arrest report, signed by an officer identified as R. Goderstad. “As Lopez searched for his license I observed involuntary muscle spasms in Lopez’s face as well as slurred repetitive speech. These symptoms are consistent with being under the influence of methamphetamine.”

The Fort Lauderdale arrest report says Officer Goderstad saw López’s 2008 Hyundai driving slowly on 4th Avenue NW when several men approached the vehicle. The men ran away when they saw the patrol car. López then accelerated the car to 50 MPH in a residential zone where the speed limit is 25. Goderstad stopped him.

Goderstad’s report says he suspected that López was under the influence of drugs and called a canine unit. A unit officer found a small metal container with methamphetamine.

During the inspection, Goderstad noticed that López had his pants unbuttoned and asked him if he was hiding something, the report said. López initially denied it.

The canine unit officer “began speaking with Lopez at which time Lopez admitted to have a methamphetamine glass pipe inside his anal cavity,” the police report said. “Lopez then stated he placed it in his rectum as he was being pulled over so I wouldn’t find it if I searched his vehicle.”

The arrest report goes on to say López was taken to a hospital to have the pipe removed.

López did not comment to the paper Monday.

López has been in trouble while working for the City of Hialeah before, the paper reported based on city records.

In 2005, he was suspended for nearly a month for drug use.

In November 1997, according to that same record, López was suspended for 30 days, but no reason is given. A year later he was suspended for two days.

Mayor Carlos Hernández did not respond to questions by El Nuevo Herald.

Arnie Alonso, Hernández’s chief of staff, said briefly Monday that the City of Hialeah had taken “appropriate management measures” in López’s case and that they were awaiting court procedures in the Fort Lauderdale case.

A couple of weeks after the arrest, López was transferred from purchasing director to a leadership post in Public Works.

In the middle of February, when an El Nuevo Herald reporter asked Hernández the reasons for the surprising transfer, the mayor said it was part of a restructuring.

However, documents signed in early February reveal that López signed a “Last Chance” agreement because of the arrest in Fort Lauderdale.

A spokesman for the Broward state attorney’s office said there is a hearing in Lopez’s case scheduled for May 7.